Twelve Cañon City residents will get to know each other very well on Friday.

The EPIC Rocky Mountain Relay will launch from Centennial Park and travel 191 miles to Crested Butte, finishing sometime Saturday.

Brian VanIwarden (-)

No stopping — one member of the team is always running. That leaves the other 11 split into two vans, trying to get some rest before their next leg of the race and trying to stay off of each others' nerves.

"When you're with people 24-26 hours crammed in a van, you get to know them well. It exposes them," said Brian VanIwarden sarcastically. He is captain of Team Fremont Adventure Recreation.

The group will compete in the mixed division, meaning they have six men and six women. The men are VanIwarden, Ian Sturgeon, Thom LeDoux, Brian Konty, Craig Hayden and Chris McIntyre. The women are Jennifer VanIwarden, Lacey LeDoux, Tara Rall, Joanna McIntyre, Emma Creany and Marcy Epperson.

The entire group lives in Cañon City and nine of the 12 of the them graduated from Cañon City High School.

The group finished first in the mixed division last year and took third place overall. The previous year they won the overall competition. This year's group has a different cast, though. Sturgeon, Hayden, Konty and Rall.

"This year we're a lot more, 'let's run how we feel like running and not worry about the speed,'" Brian VanIwarden said. "We're still on the last wave so based on our times we're still one of the fastest teams. We could still do well, but I think it's less of a guarantee and kind of less of a goal."

Brian VanIwarden will be the runner who starts the race for Team FAR. They'll take off from Centennial Park at 10 a.m. Friday. He said no one will run the same leg they did last year in order to keep it fresh for the runners.

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